Special Operations Question

I was reading this article:
https://news.yahoo.com/chinas-special-forces-stack-against-221849365.html

And this is an excerpt from the intro:

"US special-operations units can be divided into unofficial tiers.

Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 would be at the top (Tier 1), followed by the 75th Ranger Regiment, Night Stalkers, MARSOC, and SEAL and Boat Teams (Tier 2), and then the Special Forces Groups (Tier 3). Air Commandos are harder to categorize since they most often augment other units rather than deploy as teams."

Are Rangers and SEALs in the same tier? I would have thought Green Berets would have been higher than Rangers?

I don't mean any disrespect to any of these badasses. I never served so I don't have any first hand knowledge. Maybe I'm thinking about the tiers wrong altogether. Anyone wanna educate me on this topic?

 

Every Special Ops teams brings something special to the battle. Delta Force will always grab the cream of the crop.
Seal Team 6 is the top of the spear for Naval Special Warfare units. MARSCO marines are bat shit crazy but can kill
with the best of them. Rangers love wearing bikini shorts. Army ODA's are pretty bad ass too. If you want to be
rescued call the Air Force PJ's. If you want close air support have Air Force TACP's call in the A-10's.

 

One small note. PJ’s sometimes deploy with other groups and a medical component.

 

My experience puts SF well, well above the Rangers. It's a while different class of quality between the two.

 

SF is specifically Green Berets, correct?

 

Yes, the US Army Special Forces are known as the Green Berets.

 

If I had to guess, would think all Army SF warriors are Ranger School graduates.

 

No, but many move on into the Special Forces on their second enlistment.

 

As an aside...I have a GoreTex German commando smock in flecktarn. For hunting. My daughter calls it my "serial killer jacket". So much for wearing it to Walmart. Anymore.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

I always loved reading "top 10 special forces" and every list would be all over place lmao. I wonder if the people doing the rankings actually have any experience.

Although it seems the British special forces were always number 1

 

That sounds about right, but there are some that don’t fit into those boxes, PJs, medics of all services, Combat Controllers, etc. For them, it probably has more to do with what unit they served with and for how long. I’d reserve Tier 1 for a very small group of people though, they earned it.

 

I see I'm a bit late to posting a response but hope this finds you well

To generalize, all aforementioned units are Tier 2 but some of them contain a Tier 1 element within. The general public knows these Tier 1 elements as team 6 and delta force. Let me know if you have further questions

 

Gentlemen, THANK YOU for your service.

 

tier is simply a matter of funding hierarchy, most of the units mentioned work together

 

Pretty dead balls on... I am glad someone remembered the TACP/JTAC's BRRRRT

 

I wouldn't really place any "tier" above the other. Each group has a specific mission i.e. rangers are a raid force, ODAs train local military/resistance. Now with your true tier 1s they are like everyone has previously said "cream of the crop" is honestly an understatement lol.

 

Actually, I blame Hollywood for all this tier stuff. No one really heard much about "special forces" during WW II until it was all over. There were "special forces" in Korea but along with everyone else who served there no one heard much. Finally in Viet Nam the Seals, & Green Berets got some press and it was off to the races.

 

When I was on active duty as an 03/11 in the Marine Corps I got farmed out a couple of times and worked with several other services “operators” so to speak.

I remember sitting in a ‘53 talking to a PO 3rd on the SEAL detachment we were working with who summed it up this way...

(Roughly not quite quoted lol) *Man, our own command doesn’t know what to do with us half the time. We’re primarily a recon unit. If we want heavy hitters we call you guys*

 

Green berets are know to set up shop in a country and train their forces or rebel group if I'm not mistaken.

 

Not sure what a CPO 3rd is, could you mean a PO3, or petty officer 3rd class? Was he a team guy or a tech (non-SEAL)? Was he with DevGru or a numbered team? I ask because a 3rd class, even a team guy would have that kind of knowledge. To the OP's question, Delta and DevGru (Team 6) are in fact tier 1, the other teams are tier 2, yes there is a difference. Even Team guys have to "try out" for a spot on DevGru, even on the tech side. DevGru (can't speak for Delta) get fairly large budget because their official name is Naval Special Warfare Development Group (this is public knowledge) and are on a constant on-call status (can't go into anymore details than that). I speak from experience (not a Team guy), not just running my mouth.